Proof is in the numbers on animal ID issue
By Terry Anderson, For Lee Agri-Media
The proof is in the numbers as far as progress in
livestock premises registration is concerned in Nebraska and Kansas.
With a goal to have all 50 states with at least 25 percent registration by
January, Nebraska has far surpassed that benchmark, while Kansas is lagging
behind, though the national average isn't much better.
Nebraska had 13,800 hard copies of premises registered, with about 10,000
downloaded into the federal database. Last month, USDA revised its estimate of
Nebraska premises to 30,815, so registration is past the 40 percent level.
In Kansas, 4,300 premises have been registered, out of a revised estimate of
39,333, for a rate of just over 10 percent.
“Our goal still is to get as many as possible,” said Dr. Dennis Hughes. “As
(Kansas) state veterinarian, I'm involved in where a disease is spread and to
put it out quickly. What I have now is better than I had a year ago.”
Education is the key, said Hughes and Bryan Rickard, Kansas NAIS program
manager.
“Probably our biggest deal is getting education out about the program,” Rickard
said. “The 4,300 that are already registered are more progressive producers.
Now, we have to go back to the grassroots.”
Those efforts probably weren't made any easier recently when USDA announced NAIS
would be completely voluntary.
“That's a change in thinking,” Hughes said. “A change from what we'd heard
before, that in two years or so, there was a good possibility it would become
mandatory.
“We're trying to convince producers of the benefits of registering their
premises for disease control,” he continued. “It would be an educational process
to explain to them why, if we have a major disease outbreak, it would be crucial
to them and their neighbors, so we could put the fire out as quickly as
possible. And there are also the trade advantages, with more countries demanding
source verification.”
A pseudo rabies outbreak in 2001 is a good example, Hughes said. With NAIS, a
10-month search for the source would have been cut in half.
“We were always two to three weeks behind in tracking,” he said.
A tuberculosis case in Minnesota a year ago was hard to track, too, he added.
“There was a dark cloud over our heads, that there's a herd out there with TB,”
he said. “We can use that as a ‘stand on our soapbox' testimonial.”
Those who understand the importance of tracing for diseases are easy to get
registered, Hughes said. But there are others.
“We have a lot of ranchers and farmers getting close to retirement and saying,
‘Why do something like that now?'”
And there are those who cite privacy and confidentiality issues. Hughes said
that USDA speakers repeated recently that those issues would be handled, “that
there was no reason to access this data except for state and federal use for
disease concerns and tracking. That's what we always presumed it would be.
“There are anti-NAIS people making wild claims and concerns about who will have
access to the information, the IRS or others that might take advantage of this
information,” he added.
Hughes said all species have been responsive to the registration efforts,
although equine owners have been as resistant as any.
“There's some misinformation that we're going to be tracking a horse every time
it goes to a show or on a trail ride,” Hughes said. “I couldn't hire that much
manpower.”
Kansas has a couple of projects to boost registration or test the electronic
process.
A pilot radio frequency identification (RFID) project was implemented at 11
county fairs last summer. All steers and lamb species received RFID tags.
Rickard said all species will be tagged at those fairs in 2007 while 10 more
fairs will have beef and sheep tagged.
“Every year we'll try to double it,” Rickard said. “We had tremendous premises
registration, with 98 percent in those counties.”
Kansas also is working with some sale barns. Seven, and soon to be eight, barns
have had source verification monitoring equipment installed, with various
modifications to see what works well. Rickard said that in talking to someone
who sold livestock at Fort Scott, Kan., there was a feeling that sale prices
were $4 and possibly $5 or $6 stronger because of the process, all for just a $2
tag.
Rickard said he's taken notice of Nebraska's successful “Locate in 48” NAIS
implementation program.
“We're seriously thinking about going along those lines and even take it a step
further and get Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Colorado together for a ‘Locate
in 48 Midwest' program,” he said. “Talks are going on now.”
But Hughes thinks the market place eventually will drive NAIS to reality.
“My experience in the pseudo rabies days was when you get a disease that can be
devastating financially as well as emotionally, it's pretty easy to be on board
the NAIS movement,” he said. “Until we witness that, it's easy to see the bad
side of government intervention and not understand what this is for.”
Said Rickard, “My fear is it's going to take a national disaster to get anywhere
with this.”
forwarded by:
Jeanne M. Rankin, DVM
Acting
State Veterinarian
Montana Department of
Livestock
P.O.Box 202001
Helena, MT 59620-2001
406-444-1895
406-444-1929 Fax
jrankin@mt.gov